Leahy, Specter ask Rove’s lawyer for more e-mails

The chairman and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee Friday asked the lawyer of top White House aide Karl Rove to hand over more of Rove’s e-mails as they continue to investigate the controversial firings of several U.S. attorneys.

{mosads} Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and ranking Republican Arlen Specter (Pa.) sent a letter to Rove attorney Robert Luskin, asking him for a collection of Rove’s e-mails previously turned over to U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald as part of the investigation into the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame.

“The [Justice] Department’s response to the Committee … suggests that these e-mails were not in fact turned over permanently to Mr. Fitzgerald,” Leahy and Specter wrote. “Do you retain possession of this electronic media and will you provide the Committee with Mr. Rove’s e-mails related to the investigation voluntarily?”

On May 2, the Senate Judiciary Committee subpoenaed U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, demanding he turn over any and all Rove e-mails sent to Department of Justice officials concerning the firings. The department replied that it only retained the e-mails from Rove that were related to the Plame investigation and returned the rest to Luskin.